All Of It Is Real
by kab16
Summary: It all came together for Juliet. She didn't just bring them back and stop the crash with the bomb. She gave life to a whole other world, while keeping the first one totally in tact. He has to be in this world too. She just has to find him. Suliet/Jate


_**A/N: Hello! So I've been thinking about this for a while, but hadn't gotten around to writing it down. Basically the idea is that Juliet remembers both lives since she was the one who hit the bomb. Mainly Suliet with a little bit of Jate on the side :)**_

_**The end of this chapter might be a little confusing, but I think you'll get it.**_

_**This chapter is kind of an introduction or prologue or whatever you want to call it. If you guys like it, I'll continue. **_

_**Also, just to make me feel better, I'm pretending this follows my Dharma-life one-shot, Break This Curse, just because that one ended right when Juliet hit the bomb and I like closure. But they have pretty much nothing to do with each other. You don't have to read that to know what's going on here! The only thing you might want to know is that Tyler was quickly mentioned in that fic, as an explanation for how Juliet knew enough about cars to work at the Motor Pool. He was one of Rachel's old boyfriends that built cars with Juliet.**_

_**Okay, that's all I've got to say. Hope you enjoy! Pease review!**_

The man in front of Juliet rushed off the plane and looked around.

"Daddy!" someone called. Her turned and a smile broke across his face as he waved and headed toward them. Two little girls ran up and threw their arms around him. He knelt down and picked them up, then stood and embraced a woman who couldn't look happier. Juliet smiled sadly as she watched the scene. She always had a soft spot for airport reunions. Since she was about six she believed that it was one of those things that every human deserved to experience.

Unfortunately her greatest airport moments were being shipped from one parent to the other.

Not exactly the wonderful love scene she always dreamed of.

She turned away from the happy family and headed out. Everything she had was in her carryon bag.

She didn't need that much.

There was a car service waiting outside.

"Juliet Shepherd?" the driver asked.

She smiled. "That's me," she said, though it didn't feel like it was. Why the hell hadn't she changed her name?

She slid into the car and gave vague directions. Then she opened up her purse and fumbled for her phone. _I've got to remember to clean this out,_ she found herself thinking, though her purse was the least of her problems right now.

Her fingers finally wrapped around her cell phone, after coming across an old gum wrapper, lipstick, a pad of post its, a business card, a chocolate bar from who knows when, and endless numbers of pens. An uncapped one stabbed her, and she examined the ink stain on her skin as she pulled out her phone.

It was hard to believe she used to actually have the time to organize her belongings. That was before Rachel got sick, before she had a kid, before she got divorced, before Rachel got sick again.

Could her life be any more complicated?

After several rings, Juliet was greeted by the answering machine.

"Hey, it's me. I just landed. I guess by the time you get this you'll have landed too, so hope you had a good flight. Remember to pick up David at three, please. And tell him I'll call tonight. Okay, I'll talk to you later. Bye."

She hung up and sighed. Things with Jack have been so weird lately. He's choosing his work over David, even if he doesn't realize it. And when she tries to tell him he just gets defensive and angry. That was the main reason she left him. Among other, smaller problems. She realized almost immediately after getting married that she had settled for Jack. Things just never felt one hundred percent right with him. But with Rachel…she needed someone, and he was all she had.

She sighed again. After her parents' divorce, she had promised herself she'd never put her own kids through that. Of course she didn't understand then.

_Just because you love each other doesn't mean you're supposed to be together. And one day when you're older, you'll understand._

She almost laughed at herself. She remembered that day all too well. She cried for hours. She never believed she would understand.

And in some ways, she still didn't. Because she doesn't love Jack, not anymore.

And sometimes she's not even sure if she ever truly did.

The café was almost the same as it was when her parents used to bring her and Rachel here. It was a little weird to be in here alone.

She was just sitting down when she felt a stabbing pain in her back at for half a second the world turned white. She sucked in a breath and reached back, but found nothing that could have caused the sudden outburst. She was just sitting in the overly puffy chair, as she had for half of her childhood.

_Just muscle spasms_, she thought, grinding her teeth to hold back a cry of pain. But that white was weird. Must have been a weird trick of the lighting.

"Juliet?" someone called. "Juliet Carlson?"

She turned to the voice, trying to ignore the feeling of broken bones, and looked up to see Tyler Morrison.

"Tyler!" she exclaimed. He looked different from the last time she saw him, when she was eighteen. She had left Miami on good terms with him, though it took a lot of working out, after he tried that kiss in his garage, while still dating Rachel. She tried to stand, but she couldn't handle the pain that shot through her spine. "What are you doing here?"

"Visiting my parents for the week. You here for Rachel?" It almost wasn't a question, his voice filled with sympathetically.

"Yeah, she isn't doing too well." Juliet wasn't surprised that he knew about the cancer, even though he has barley spoken to Rachel since they were eighteen. His parents lived pretty close, and they have been absolutely in love with Rachel ever since Tyler brought her over for dinner for the first time, about twenty years ago. They still get together sometimes, which Juliet always found horrifyingly strange. She shuddered at the thought of eating dinner alone with jacks parents. _Or I guess it would just be his mom, now_, she thought.

"Can I sit down?"

She motioned to the seat on front of her. "Go right ahead."

They talked for a while, and Juliet managed to block out the pain.

"So what are you up too?"

"Still making cars," he smiled. "Working with Ford now. What about you?"

"I'm at a hospital in Los Angeles. I'm a fertility doctor."

"A _what_? You serious?" She laughed and nodded. "Ugh, I was so sure you'd do mechanics or something. You were great with cars."

"Yeah, but, from what I hear, I'm even better with babies."

Tyler laughed. "I can't believe you're wasting your precious time on pregnant woman when you could be doing something as important as fixing cars."

"Oh, I know. I just lie in bed at night, thinking 'what am I doing with my life? saving lives instead of creating cars.'"

"Exactly. You've only get one life you know, you should do something meaningful with it."

They both laughed, which only made the pain even worse. Every now and then she would blink and for an instant, she saw nothing but darkness, felt nothing but metal and blood mixing around her skin. It was beginning to freak her out.

There laughter was just beginning to subside when Juliet felt a sudden pressure on her chest. Like she was being crushed under a house. She felt it in her legs too. Her smile twisted and she was finding it hard to breath.

"Hey you okay?" Tyler reached uncertainly across the table.

"I'm fine," she managed. But the images of the darkness were getting stronger and lasting for longer periods of time. And the pain was more real than ever.

She resisted the urge to scream.

The pressure on her chest disappeared, which gave little relief. Everything else hurt.

_"Juliet,"_ she heard distantly, like from the inside of a dream. _"I'm here." _

"Are you sure you're alright? What's going on?"

"Nothing." It was anything but nothing. What the hell was happening to her?

_"Come here. Come on, baby. Come on." Hands were stroking her face and hair. "Wake up."_

_ Her eyes opened, and she saw him. His face, caked with blood, right over hers._

"Juliet?" Tyler called. She knew he was standing, coming over to her. But at this point he was even more distant then the other man she was hearing. It was a cave or a pit or something. Then Tyler disappeared completely and all she was aware of was the man in front of her. James.

_"Hi," she smiled._

_ He let out a shaky breath, relived and scared as hell all at once. "Hey."_

_ She grabbed his hand and looked around. Something was off. She wasn't supposed to be here with James. She wasn't here a second ago, was she? "Wh-wh…Where are we?"_

_ "Don't worry about that," he said. "You're fine." _

_ She didn't believe that for one second. But she was too confused to say anything else._

_"I gotta get you out of here, okay." He pulled away from her, and she was tempted to pull him back down. But she didn't. She laid on the cool, hard ground and tried to figure it out. They were still on the island. Of course they were. But before he came and woke her up she had thought…she had thought they were off. She thought she was in a café her parents used to take her to. She must have been dreamt of it. Weird though, she hadn't been to that place, or even thought of it, in years. _

_ It dawned on her as she heard the clanking of metal. It really was just a terribly realistic dream. They were still on this island. She hit the bomb and not a damn thing happened._

_ "It didn't work." She heard James stop moving the pieces of debris surrounding her. "We're still on the island."_

_ James came back to her, took her face in his hands. "It's okay. It's okay. I just gotta get this off. I gotta get you out okay?"_

_ He kept rambling on but she cut him off. "No. I hit the bomb and your still here." Desperation crept into her voice. How did she let this happen?_

_ "You what?" He paused, trying to take this in. "You hit the bomb? Why?"_

_ She felt like crying as she reached up and put her arms around him. "I wanted you to be able to go." She couldn't hold in the tears any longer. "I wanted to make it so that you never came to this damn island. It didn't work!"_

_ He took in a breath. "Don't you worry about that. You're going to be okay." He sounded so sure. She almost believed him. "I'm gonna get you out of here and we're all going to go home together, you hear me?" She nodded, and as he began to work on getting a giant piece of metal off her legs, she heard someone calling her name._

_ And it all went away._

"Juliet? Hey, Juliet?"

She opened her eyes slowly. Tyler's gray eyes were full of concern.

"Wh-what's going on?" She had no sense of what was real and what wasn't. Of who was really in front of her and who was some imaginary figure in the back of her brain.

"I think you'll have to tell me. You just completely zoned out. Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry Tyler. I don't know what's wrong with me today. I'm just feeling a little off." She grabbed her bag. "I think I'm just gonna go back to Rachel's and take a nap."

"Good, I think you need one."

She smiled slightly and stood. he followed. "Maybe we can get together sometime?" he offered.

She kept her smile carefully in place. She just wanted to get out of there. "Sure. We could get coffee some time."

Tyler grinned. "Remember when we were putting that car together and all we did was drink coffee? You always seemed to 'forget' your money. I nearly went broke paying for you."

She couldn't help the real smile that took over her face. "We can go Dutch."

Tyler's response was audible, but faint. She felt a pair of arms around her. The feel of blood sticking to her skin was back.

_"Juliet…it's me."_

_ It was nice to hear his voice again._

_ "James."_

"What? Juliet…it's me…it's Tyler."

_"Yeah?" James smiled, clearly relieved._

_ She knew she didn't have much time. She was going crazy. Hearing voices, imagining places. But James was real. And there was one more thing she needed to feel before she went._

_ "Kiss me."_

"Okay, you must really be sick. Juliet, please. Sit down. Come on, it's me, Tyler."

_ "You got it Blondie."_

_ He brought his lips to hers. And it was amazing. But for a moment there was no kiss at all, just the noise of the café. And this time she knew it was real. She knew was at the café, with Tyler. She had to be._

_ She was off the island. She was on the island…but she was also off the island. Somehow. She was both._

_ The bomb had worked, just not exactly the way they had thought._

_ "I have to tell you something," she whispered. The café was becoming clearer and clearer. And James was getting further and further away. She fought to stay conscious, to stay in this island-world. Just for another minute, just so she could tell him…_

_ "It's really, really important."_

She could see Tyler more then James. No! No, not yet! She forced her mind back into her crippled, dying body.

_"You tell me," James said. She looked right into his eyes. He was so beautiful…_

_ She couldn't keep her eyes open another second. She could feel her heart stopping. It was only two words! She could tell him in two words! She _needed_ to tell him. There was nothing more important than this. _

_ "Tell me."_

_ She opened her mouth._

"It worked." The words escaped her lips right after it all went black. James was gone, really gone this time. Or maybe it was her who was gone. It didn't matter, all that mattered was that she couldn't get back to the life with him. That body of hers was dead.

Her knees gave out. And as she fell, the café turned to black too.

_**A/N: Well, I hope this makes sense. I'll try to get the next chapter up soon! (Okay, I've got to stop making these promises…but I actually know where I'm going with this one, so I'm a little more confident.) **_

_**Thanks for reading!**_

_**:) **_


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